We become what we believe. We believe what we behold.
There is nothing more important than spending time with God. This is why prayer is not one aspect of the Christian life. Prayer is how we live discipleship. The more that we spend time in prayer, the more we will experience the abundant and unfathomable love of the Trinity.
I saw this firsthand when I made the commitment to begin praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet more consistently. The time can be made early in the mornings or late in the evenings. The most suitable time is 3:00 pm, the moment that Christ passed away on the cross. Whether we pray this chaplet in the car or in the middle of the night when we cannot fall asleep, doing so consistently will transform us.
For me, there were three changes that happened.
First, making an intentional choice to reflect on the mercy of God made me more aware of my own sinfulness. Mercy is the love and forgiveness we receive from God that we don’t deserve. Despite our consistent choice to worship pleasure or pride or selfishness, God always forgives those who return to Him. He makes every effort to make His way towards us, especially when we stray.
Praying the chaplet several times a week, if not daily, allowed me to better come to grips with my sinful inclinations and begin to root them out of my life. This occurred, not out of fear of doing wrong, but out of a deeper sense of not contributing to the suffering of Christ’s heart on the cross.
Second, the words of the chaplet allowed me to spiritually make myself present to Christ as he took his final breath. On the Our Father beads we pray: “Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.”
The chaplet is meant to unite us with the heart of Christ as he gave his life for you and for me. When we spend time focusing on the image of a crucifix or use our imagination to place ourselves at the foot of the cross, we can more clearly see what he did. We can experience his mercy through the use of mental prayer and the words of the chaplet.
On the Hail Mary beads we pray: “For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” This repetition, if done slowly and pondered truthfully, becomes a chorus for us to know just how much we, and the entire world, need his mercy. We can come to more clearly see and know the brutal nature of Christ’s passion and offer to be with him as he suffers.
Finally, I began to love my family more as I placed them as my main intentions during the recitation of the chaplet. At the beginning of my chaplet, I would pray for family members by name. I would ask for them to experience and be enveloped by the mercy of God, wherever they find themselves.
This was very powerful for me.
It allowed me to be more patient with the flaws of others because I was coming to see how my sinfulness was so real. It also revealed to me a deeper understanding of intercessory prayer. When we pray for others, we become like Christ on the cross. We offer our time of prayer as a way for others to see his love. For, while he was suffering on the cross he placed the weight and ugliness of sin on his shoulders. He experienced what our sin was, and he chose to love us anyway.
Praying for others is similar. We call to mind the sufferings of challenges that another is going through and we give them to Christ. He hears us and takes those intentions with a piercing love to transform the ones we pray for. In the process, we are more deeply united to the heart of Jesus.
So, consider praying to the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Make a commitment to start small and see how the love and mercy of God will be more deeply revealed to you. Because His mercy is what He so desperately desires to give and union with His love is what we were crafted for.
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Image: Unsplash
